Fast-moving dark lines
below the plane suddenly became a glacier. This did not immediately register  I just
knew that we were very close to whatever it was. Later I discovered that the lines were
crevasses. As I reached up and threw the throttles, propellers and mixture forward and
pulled back on the yolk, I told my co-pilot, "we are in the mountains!" My
copilot thought I had vertigo so he held his yoke, which kept me from pitching up. I
reached over and forced him off the controls and, almost as quickly, I said: "we are
on the ground."

This could easily be a description of a
correctly executed glacier landing, but it wasnt the report of an experienced Swiss
mountain pilot. Instead it describes the experience of a 25-year-old US Air Force pilot,
Ralph Tate, who in 1946 became lost while flying a DC3 over Switzerland. On board were 12
passengers, high-ranking officers and a few civilians including women and children. Aside
from a few bumps and bruises none were injured and fortunately the wireless set was still
functioning.

Tates wireless
call for help sparked the first Swiss glacier rescue operation. The accident victims
waited for three days on the Gauli glacier at 9,900 feet. When the weather cleared, two
Swiss military pilots, Captain Viktor Hug and Major Pista Hitz, risked a landing in their
Fieseler Storch. As fate would have it, the men had recently mounted skis on their planes
and practiced some landings. Despite the extremely short available landing area, the
unheard-of operation was a success, witnessed by a collected world press.

The dramatic and glorious birth of Swiss
rescue flight operations was also the beginning of a grand tradition of mountain flying
that continues today. Even though the helicopter has mostly replaced the airplane for
mountain rescues, there are still about 60 male and female pilots who practice the extreme
art of glacier landings.

In Switzerland, each
applicant for a glacier-landing license must be available for rescue missions and are
required to complete a one-year training program  theory and practical hands-on
experience  prior to conducting glacier operations. Accompanied by a mountain pilot
instructor, the applicant must make a minimum of 250 landings on different glacier landing
strips followed by a check ride with a Swiss Air Department examiner.